Red-capped Parrot

Purpureicephalus spurious

Heinrich Kuhl was the first to describe the species, in 1820.

Purpureicephalus is Greek for purple-headed and spurious means illegitimate or bastard, a reference to the observation that the juvenile and adult Red-capped Parrot were so different in plumage as to appear unrelated.

John Gould (artist), Henry Constantine Richter (lithographer), Platycercus pileatus (Red-capped Parrakeet) 1848

Author’s note: This illustration is the first published of the species.

Ebenezer Edward Gostelow, The Red-capped (or West Aus. ‘King’) Parrot (Purpureicephalus spurius) 1938 (female, top; adult male, bottom)

Author’s note: The adult female Red-capped Parrot has more red on its crown (but not as much as the male) than shown in the painting above. Perhaps Gostelow was working from a specimen that had not quite reached adulthood. Adult Red-capped Parrots occur mostly as pairs and are difficult to see in the treetops, but the immature birds band together in noisy flocks.

William T. Cooper, Red-capped Parrot (Purpureicephalus spurius) 1970 (adult male)

Author’s note: The Red-capped Parrot has a long, narrow, protruding upper bill that it uses to remove seeds from the deep gumnuts of Marri, Eucalyptus calophylla, and other trees and shrubs. It also feeds on fruits, berries, blossoms, leaf buds and insects including lerps (psyllid larvae and their sugary coating).